The city has purchased all of the adjacent properties and already demolished several houses but had been unable to settle with the owners of Kubica Glass who lived and worked out of the 20th Street building.
The City of Saskatoon took possession of the property on April 30. Following an environmental assessment of the land and any necessary remediation, it’s hoped that construction of the senior’s complex can begin by fall of 2010.
The store, operated by British Columbia businessman Rexy Silva and his daughter Tabitha, opened its doors on April 5th of this year in the retail level of the 2nd Avenue Lofts. Saskatoon had been without a downtown grocer since Extra Foods closed their 3rd Avenue location in 2004.
News is difficult to come by on the closure but Lyndontells me he heard that the owners are seeking investors and hoping to reopen the store after some “re-vamping.” I’ve also heard that product selection and merchandising were both weaknesses for the store. Perhaps the Uptown Market can find a second life with some help in those areas.
Thanks to Ginger for the heads up on this.
I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.
Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra
New MLS® listingsgrew to 123, up eight from last week to finish higher than the same period in 2009 when 110 Saskatoon home sellers listed their home on the Multiple Listing Service®.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph. 
The inventory of residential listings crept up again gaining eleven units over the course of the week to finish at 1427, just eight units fewer than were available at this time in 2009. Most of the gains were recorded in the single-family detached house category, which moved higher to 853 homes while active condo listings fell below the five hundred mark to finish at 495.
I found it interesting that for three consecutive years inventory numbers were essentially the same during this particular week. Of course, in 2009 they were already headed for lower ground. In 2010, they continued to swell taking another three months to reach peak numbers for the year.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph. 
Cancelled and withdrawn listings came in at forty-two with twenty-five of those being reprocessed as a new listing the same day they came off. Price adjustments crept higher again reaching eighty-six properties.
The average selling price of a Saskatoon home bounced higher to once again break the $300,000 mark. The six-week average moved up nearly two thousand dollars to $298,951 and gained more than twenty thousand dollars over the same week last year. The four-week median slid lower for the second week in a row losing fifteen hundred dollars to close at $285,000, up just eight thousand dollars from the same time in 2009.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph. 
Overbid sales continued to be sparse with just three of this week’s sales recording an above list sale price. The average overbid is heavily skewed by one sale that went over list by forty-four thousand dollars. It was a new house so additional improvements are likely included in the final sale price. Seventy-six of the sales for the week were reported as selling below the asking price by $8,981 on average for a discount of 2.7 percent.
Click the image for a larger version of the chart. 
I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.
Our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS® listings represented by all real estate brands, presented with more detail than you’ll find anywhere else. Check it out here.
Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra
I'm here for everyone on the site and able to answer any financing questions you may have or come across during your home shopping. Feel free to ask about rates or bring forth any questions you may have as I am happy to help. My service is always free and I look forward to helping anyone with their current or future home purchases!
I’d also like to thank Norm for giving me this opportunity to post on his always informative and growing site!
I’m always happy to answer your mortgage related questions. Please leave me a comment below or call me at 306-260-9918.
Riel Syrenne
The Mortgage Group
One of the characteristics of an MLS® listing is an “offer of compensation.” The listing brokerage agrees to share the negotiated commission with any other brokerage that might bring a buyer who agrees to purchase the property. That offer of compensation is published with the listing data on the member based MLS® system. In most cases, the compensation offered gets lower as the price of the home goes up. Most commonly, we’ll see something like what you see below.
3% on the first $100,000, 2% on the second $100,000 and 1% on the balance of the sale price.
Recently, I noticed an MLS listing priced at $399,900 with the following compensation offer.
0% on the first $350,000, 25% on the next $50,000 and 3% on the balance of the sale price.
If you were about to make an offer on this house would you want to know that your agent could be earning nearly two times the commission available on most listings in this price range? Would you want to know that your agent would earn an extra $250 for every additional $1,000 you agreed to pay?
Should you be entitled to full disclosure on this extraordinary and unusual compensation offer?
I think most buyers would want to know and I’m also of the opinion that they’d be entitled to know. Don’t be afraid to ask your buyer’s agent how he or she is paid and instruct them to advise you if you’re about to make an offer on a property that has any selling incentives or extraordinary compensation offers available on it. Better yet, understand that you’re really paying the feeand agree up front on how much it will be.
I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.
Real estate geeks can follow our daily updates on Twitter @norm_fisher.
Our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS listings represented by all real estate brands, presented with more detail than you’ll find anywhere else. Check it out here.
Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra
“Holy Family is a name that will resonate with the children and families who will come to this school. This was an important consideration for the Board as we made our decision,” said Diane Boyko, Chair of the Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools Board of Education.
Premier Brad Wall announcedfunding for the construction of both a public school and a catholic school in Willowgrove on March 19. The two schools will share a building at Wallace Park in the centre of the Willowgrove neighbourhood.
Read more information from the Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools here.
I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.
Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra
Read more from the Star Phoenix here.
On a weekly basis, new listingsstayed level as one hundred and fifteen properties were added to the Saskatoon MLS® system, just eight more than were listed during the same period in 2009.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph. 
After remaining fairly steady for three consecutive weeks the residential listing inventory had showed some signs that it was ready to turn lower this week and by Wednesday it had dropped to 1,386 properties. Friday saw a surge of forty new MLS® listings and total inventory actually moved higher by ten units on a week-over-week basis to finish at 1,416 properties, just fifty-one fewer than were available at the same time last year. Single-family inventory grew the most jumping fourteen units to reach 842. At the same time, condo inventory slid slightly losing four units to finish the week at 500 even.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph. 
Cancelled and withdrawn listings remained steady at forty-one with twenty-five relists quickly following, most at a lower price. An additional eighty-five price changes were processed over the course of the week, the largest number that I can recall for quite some time, but not at all surprising given the softening in sales activity over the past four weeks.
Prices continued to slip back from the wild bounce they started on two weeks ago when an unusually large share of high-end sales skewed the numbers up. This week, the average selling price of a Saskatoon home slipped $26,000 from the week before to finish at $284,057. The six-week average dropped $3,000 from the previous week to $297,001 and finished $22,000 higher than it was at this time last year. The four-week median lost $3,500 on the week falling to $286,500 to pick up a gain of $17,500 over last year.
Click the image for a larger version of the graph. 
Seventy-four of eighty-three sales traded below the asking price with an average discount of roughly 2.8% or $8,378. Five sellers got their price while four managed a bit of a bonus as buyers agreed to pay an average of $3,075 more than list price.
Click the image for a larger version of the chart. 
I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.
Our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS listings represented by all real estate brands, presented with more detail than you’ll find anywhere else. Check it out here.
Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra
Social Services Minister Donna Harpauer announced an expansion of the Lighthouse that will add 65 affordable housing units by December of 2011, essentially doubling the capacity of the supported living facility. The $11.5 million dollar addition will be funded with an investment from the federal and provincial Affordable Housing Trust.
Once completed, the facility will offer a total of 128 units at the downtown location. There are currently more than 80 people on a waiting list for the Lighthouse, which caters to “the poorest of the poor,” executive director Don Windels told the Star Phoenix. I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions.
All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.
Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra
Seasonally adjusted home sales activity via the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) Systems of Canadian real estate Boards declined nationally by 9.5 per cent in May from near-record level activity the previous month. While activity declined in more than 70 per cent of local markets, the lower national figure resulted largely from fewer sales in Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa.
The seasonally adjusted number of homes that were new listings on Canadian MLS® Systems in May 2010 declined by four per cent from the previous month. This marks the first monthly decline in new listings in eight months. New listings had been climbing sharply, rising from a four-year low last September to the second highest level ever last month.
More in CREA's official release here or watch CREA's chief economist Gregory Klump provide an overview of Canadian real estate statistics for May.
I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.
Our Saskatoon home search tool offers MLS listings represented by all real estate brands, presented with more detail than you’ll find anywhere else. Check it out here.
Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra
The building was offered for sale a year ago and still hasn’t sold. Kooy told the Star Phoenix, “At first I thought I was done, but I truly want to come back” indicating that the closure of Gateway Playersleaves “a gap” in the market that “makes talent and customers more available.”
Kooy sees a four-play season starting in November with the possibility of some productions for children if someone can be found to pick up those responsibilities.
Best wishes to Peter Kooy and the Off Broadway Dinner Theatre.
I’m always happy to answer your Saskatoon real estate questions. All of my contact info is here. Please feel free to call or email.
Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra
Today marks the launch of Parkview Green, the first of a handful of affordable housing projects in the works as a result of the Pleasant Hill revitalization project. Located at 1505 and 1507 19th Street West the project is a joint venture between River Ridge Homes and Ehrenburg Homes. The project features twenty-four family oriented homes (town homes and bungalows) priced between $190,000 and $240,000. Additional financial assistance is available to buyers with family incomes below $52,000.
The Parkview Green sales brochure is here.
Visit Alan Wallace’s Pleasant Hill Village blog for more information on revitalization in the Pleasant Hill area of Saskatoon.